NBA Finals 2017 - Page 20

This Boston (likely fake) trade talk is so spicy. I don't see what the plan is for anyone besides Philly, who would be in great position with a healthy Fultz/Wiggans/Saric with Embiid upside if he ever is really

On June 18 2017 09:29 cLutZ wrote:This Boston (likely fake) trade talk is so spicy. I don't see what the plan is for anyone besides Philly, who would be in great position with a healthy Fultz/Wiggans/Saric with Embiid upside if he ever is really

plan for boston is to sign someone big or get enough assets to trade for one.

On June 18 2017 09:29 cLutZ wrote:This Boston (likely fake) trade talk is so spicy. I don't see what the plan is for anyone besides Philly, who would be in great position with a healthy Fultz/Wiggans/Saric with Embiid upside if he ever is really

plan for boston is to sign someone big or get enough assets to trade for one.

Possibly, but why wouldn't thier trade partner for a Butler/etc want the #1 also? To me this trade makes sense to Boston if: 1) You are uniquely low on Fultz and prefer a lower ranked player; or 2) You plan on trading Thomas & other assets that are getting close to New contracts (Crowder, Bradley) and basically are re-rebuilding around Brown and new picks.

Celtics FO is making all the best decisions. Fultz is not a Jordan/Shaq level talent, and it has a lot of assets that it can utilize to build further. I think it's wise for them to wait it out a bit while stacking on trade and draft assets. Too bad though, with this strategy, IT4 will be eventually moved

On June 18 2017 13:23 Twinkle Toes wrote: Too bad though, with this strategy, IT4 will be eventually moved

if your goal is to win a championship Thomas can't be your starting PG. if all you want to do is make the playoffs Thomas is ur guy. i think everybody's favourite former toronto blue jay is making all the right moves.

Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"

On June 18 2017 13:23 Twinkle Toes wrote: Too bad though, with this strategy, IT4 will be eventually moved

if your goal is to win a championship Thomas can't be your starting PG. if all you want to do is make the playoffs Thomas is ur guy. i think everybody's favourite former toronto blue jay is making all the right moves.

"You put together good games individually, but to put together good games individually and achieve team success is like nirvana. That’s what you always want as a basketball player. You want to play well, and you also want your team to win."

"When I’m not guarding LeBron [James], I was guarding Kevin Love. And Kyrie [Irving] some possessions. So it was like I didn’t have a break. I had to be on alert with all of those guys. Kyle Korver, when he came into the game. J.R. Smith. And offensive rebounding, it’s like [Iman] Shumpert and Richard Jefferson. You gotta always be aware of them because they’re gonna cut. They’re gonna make the winning basketball plays outside of just making baskets. But then on top of that, they had shooters. So it was kind of hard to lock in on helping on LeBron when he’s driving but also knowing that he could whip a pass to the corner and hit a shooter. So I had to be on guard for every type of movement, from running around chasing Korver to Kyrie dribbling 10 times in a possession to get a basket, or LeBron trying to bully his way to the rim and Kevin Love trying to post me up. I was trying to worry about so many different ways to get a stop. That’s why I was so stressed. That’s why I couldn’t sleep. They had so many weapons."

"Yeah, exactly. And we knew that, first of all, the way we move in our offense tires defenses out no matter what. So we knew we had Ian Clark, Pat McCaw, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston [coming off the bench]. They’re not the “clear out the way, iso them, let’s go get a basket” [kind of guys]. They tire other teams out and score when they’re not supposed to basically because they move around — they cut. They get layups, they get easy baskets, and they play defense. So it just overwhelms you with the way we play, and on top of that the IQ we have on the bench as well is the reason why we’re so deep."

"We all watched Cleveland all year. Just watching how they play defense. And they pack the paint a lot and they were good on initial action, but after two or three passes, we found out we could get a lot of stuff on the back end because they’re not as disciplined after the first few passes as they should have been. The Celtics exposed that a little bit. The Indiana series as well, they were getting a lot of open looks. We just passed the ball eight — sometimes eight or nine times in a possession. And that tires the defenses out."

"Yeah, that’s what I’m telling you. It was back and forth. We were missing layups, they were struggling to score, like it was just a battle. And then we pulled away. We were up [eight points at the half] in Game 1, then we pulled away in the third. Every game we always told ourselves, “Take the first punch, play well in the first punch, and then after that, we gonna see where they are.” Because, you know, they always used to come out super strong, so they didn’t really pace themselves. They just always wanted to blitz us early."

"LeBron plays with force, and he plays downhill. So when you, as a coach, say you need to up the pace, upping the pace is him just getting downhill, getting to the rim. And that’s taxing. And then especially having to guard, too, down on the other end, guard us with the way we move. So it was like, you’re coming out the gates real, real strong, real, real fast, and at some point you’ll start to level off."

"Yeah, that was probably a game we probably would have lost [on game 1 vs. Spurs]."

"It kind of all played out so perfectly. We were getting stops, we were forcing them to play one-on-one, and making them shoot over the top of us. And we rebounded. And coach didn’t call a timeout when we were down two with 45 seconds to go. We probably could have called a timeout and set up like a 2-for-1 or something. So he didn’t call a timeout and, like you said, I saw LeBron just heels behind the 3."

"Exactly. That’s exactly how I looked at the whole series, too: like a pickup game. The type of players that you would play pickup with, like, it felt like they were all on the court. Like you get the big, strong fast bully who just runs to the rim like LeBron James. You get the dude that’s gonna dribble the whole possession and look sweet while doing it in Kyrie Irving. Then you get the big white guy who can rebound and shoot 3s: Kevin Love. It feels like it was a team created at 24 Hour Fitness. That’s how I was looking at it."

"Exactly. That’s exactly how I looked at the whole series, too: like a pickup game. The type of players that you would play pickup with, like, it felt like they were all on the court. Like you get the big, strong fast bully who just runs to the rim like LeBron James. You get the dude that’s gonna dribble the whole possession and look sweet while doing it in Kyrie Irving. Then you get the big white guy who can rebound and shoot 3s: Kevin Love. It feels like it was a team created at 24 Hour Fitness. That’s how I was looking at it."

" Yes! He [Javale] was an unbelievable teammate. He brought everybody together. He was the reason why we were so tight. Yeah, his spirit is just [an] open spirit. He’s just always in a good mood. Just his own person. And everybody just sort of gravitates to it. He was friends with everybody in a different way."

He [Jefferson] was physical — I can’t say he was fouling because I’ve been played like that before. But when I caught the ball, he was so physical that I had him on his heels and I would just catch it and go in to the rim. So I knew that all his weight was forward, so when I caught the ball he was face-guarding me. … I was just catching and going. So I just tried to use that against him."

"Yeah, we put in work, man. Stop telling us that it wasn’t earned or that we didn’t work for it. We were the most disciplined team all year. We preached teamwork and togetherness all season. And it’s hard to do that with a bunch of egos in the league."

"They drafted Klay. They drafted Curry. Minnesota passed Steph twice. Draymond was the 35th pick. They created the cap space to get Iguodala. They created the cap space to get you. They went and bought the McCaw pick. When they signed Livingston, they weren’t like, “Oh, Shaun Livingston is the reason we’re gonna win the championship now.” That wasn’t a thought when they signed Shaun Livingston. They were like, “Oh, this is a good piece, a solid piece.” Nobody was calling that the game-changing piece. But now it’s a superteam now. … Klay Thompson, just being a shooter, was the 11th pick. A lot of people could’ve had him. They didn’t. Draymond Green was the 35th pick. He didn’t play as much his first few years; now everybody wants players like Draymond Green. These dudes weren’t coming out of high school as the best players in their class. They had great college careers but they weren’t highly touted. They started winning because they had a great coach and they’re playing together and playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played. You wanna discredit what they do by saying it’s supposed to be easy? No. They put in the work, everybody put in the work. And they want to play the right way."

On June 18 2017 13:23 Twinkle Toes wrote: Too bad though, with this strategy, IT4 will be eventually moved

if your goal is to win a championship Thomas can't be your starting PG. if all you want to do is make the playoffs Thomas is ur guy. i think everybody's favourite former toronto blue jay is making all the right moves.

S'what I said. Water. It's wet.

right , so its not "too bad" as you stated.. its inevitable.

Ray Kassar To David Crane : "you're no more important to Atari than the factory workers assembling the cartridges"

On June 18 2017 09:29 cLutZ wrote:This Boston (likely fake) trade talk is so spicy. I don't see what the plan is for anyone besides Philly, who would be in great position with a healthy Fultz/Wiggans/Saric with Embiid upside if he ever is really

plan for boston is to sign someone big or get enough assets to trade for one.

Possibly, but why wouldn't thier trade partner for a Butler/etc want the #1 also? To me this trade makes sense to Boston if: 1) You are uniquely low on Fultz and prefer a lower ranked player; or 2) You plan on trading Thomas & other assets that are getting close to New contracts (Crowder, Bradley) and basically are re-rebuilding around Brown and new picks.

I heard that they possibly want somebody like Jackson as the number 3 pick and think he's likely available in that spot. But that means that they're thinking of keeping IT2. More draft picks means more shots on goal. It is a nice theory but the NBA is more top heavy than the NFL. That's an NFL draft strategy that they're employing.

The Celtics already have a full stable of average to above average players. They don't need to get deeper.

As a rental to the Cavs for cheap...? I'm down for that. I don't know if it's likely to happen, but if I'm PG I would look to make the most of this year if possible. Cleveland is the best (only?) bet for a ring. I've read he would play for the Raptors too (https://twitter.com/Yg_Trece/status/14048538731).